{{short description|News story in a gossip column where subjects are anonymous}} {{refimprove|date=August 2012}} A '''blind item''' is a news story, typically in a gossip column, in which the details of the matter are reported while the identities of the people involved are not revealed.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/10/crazy-days-and-nights-enty-interview|title=The King of the Hollywood Blind Item Reveals All|last=Bonner|first=Mehera|work=Vanities|access-date=2018-04-28|language=en}}</ref> The invention of the blind item is credited to William d'Alton Mann (1839&ndash;1920), publisher of ''Town Topics'', who often used it for blackmail.<ref>{{cite magazine |title= Gossiper Silenced |date= Jan 25, 1932 |magazine=Time |url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743014,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070310153711/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743014,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= March 10, 2007 |access-date= Aug 8, 2008 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Communication privacy management theory relates to the ideas of information privacy, truthful reporting and expression of opinions that influence this form of communication.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=McNealy|first1=Jasmine|last2=Mullis|first2=Michaela Devyn|date=March 2019|title=Tea and turbulence: Communication privacy management theory and online celebrity gossip forums|journal=Computers in Human Behavior|volume=92|pages=110–118|doi=10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.029|s2cid=59528457 |issn=0747-5632}}</ref>

Sometimes cryptic clues or generic descriptions of the parties involved may be supplied to tease general readers or signal to closeknit communities of celebrities, socialites or insiders. The advent of gossip websites brought about more public debate and speculation about the individual blind item stories, and also about the ethics surrounding the practice.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ortner |first=Heike |date=2013 |title=Not So Blind Items: Anonymous Celebrity Gossip Exposed |url=http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/legacy/mit8/papers/Ortner_MIT8_Blind_Items.pdf }}</ref> Audiences might use blind item material as a shared topic of conversation with peers, and perhaps even as a conversational entry point to a sensitive topic that is personal to them.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Petersen|first=Anne Helen|title=The Gossip Industry: Producing and Distributing Star Images, Celebrity Gossip and Entertainment News 1910-2010|date=May 2011|publisher=The University of Texas at Austin|url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/11454}}</ref>

The "reveal" is when the names of the anonymous parties are subsequently published.

==See also== *Circular sourcing *Defamation *Innuendo *Roman à clef *Rumor *De-identification *Anonymization

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Newswriting

{{journalism-stub}}